Getting Started

Quick Tour : Your first 10 minutes with Sam

•  First part: quick tour of how task lists and the Kanban cards work.
  
•  Second part: Create your first project with new tasks.

It is very easy to try Sam and sign up for your trial.
You do not need a credit card, only your email, and it takes 1 minute. You should follow this guide on a laptop, desktop or tablet, not your smartphone. Sam works on all devices but it is optimized for laptop, desktop and tablet screens.

Later on, login is very simple, but it is unlike most apps.
With Sam, you do not need to remember a password.
Instead, once a week, when you login, Sam sends you an email with a one time access code by email. This method is extremely secure as there is no risk of hacking our servers and steal your password.

Here is how it works.
First you enter your email address.

The standard mode is a feature to avoid sending an email every time you need to login, because this would be tedious. Instead, once a week, you need to login with a code sent by email, and any other time, you will only need your PIN. The alternative mode is only when you login on public devices, for example in a library, cafe, etc..

The email access code is your real authentication. This code works only once, and only on the device you are trying to authenticate. Make sure what you receive in your email matches the beginning of the code on screen.

TIP : For this to work, you should make sure Sam's emails do not go to your junk/spam folder. A good way to make sure to see them, is to add support@sam9000.com as a contact in your email software.

Once you click Activate, if the code is the right one, you will have to enter your PIN.

The PIN is a bit like a password you specified when you created your account.
Unlike a password though, a PIN is not enough to login (your device must first be authorized with the email access code, once a week). Also, if you forget your PIN, Sam just sends you a new one by email, since, again, it is not enough to login.
It is simply a convenience so that you can quickly get back in, on your own device.

TIP : If you need to add users in your team (up to 10 are included by default), you can do this in the Setup menu. More on this at the bottom of this article.

After you login...

Once you click Start, you will have full access and you should see the screen My Tasks Today.
This screen is on your dashboard. This is a view specifically compiled for you by Sam, with only your active tasks.

You can create a new Task by clicking the button [+ New], on top of the list.
Although you can use Kanban cards (and the unique 3D Kanban model used in Sam), the App uses simple lists extensively. Often, it is easier to stay focused and manage priorities in list view.
It is very easy to switch between Kanban and List view. Note the Kanban arrow, top right on the screen. In Kanban view, click on List to get the other view.

Anything you do in one view, is visible in the other one. Kanban cards are great to get an overview of what is happening. Lists are better to manage tasks' priority groups within projects, and easily edit several of them.

Once you click on => Kanban,  you should see the screen My Kanban Today.

This is where Sam9000 shows your own scheduled tasks as kanban cards.
It comes with three tasks already created in it:
Welcome, I am Sam, Read the “Getting Started Guides and Try to upload a file.

These are “dummy tasks” to give you an idea of what the Kanban looks like. You can get rid of them once you are more familiar with how Sam works.

To get familiar with how Sam9000 works you can try the following things:

1. Drag and drop cards to the different columns Started, Test/Deliver and Done/Finalized.
Don’t worry you can go wrong; you can drag and drop them back to Scheduled by Sam

2. Click Edit on one of the cards. This will open a panel on the right and show the task’s details.

Create your first project with tasks

For this tutorial we will take the case of a product specialist, Ann, using Sam9000 to organize the different projects needed to develop a new line of product.

Step One: create a new project
For each product launch Ann usually needs to deal with several projects in parallel. For this tutorial, we will focus on what she would need to do herself only. In more advanced tutorials we will explore how she interacts with the other coworkers in her team.

The first thing she needs to do is create the different projects to organize the product launch.

• Digital Catalog
• Sales marketing tools
• ERP system programming
• Prototype validation (not related to this launch)
• Rep and Order entry training.
  

To create a new project, click on Projects in the top bar menu.
This brings you in Team Kanban where you will see project Sam: Getting Started already there.

Click on + Project to create a new Digital Catalog project

A window will appear prompting you to select a Type of project. Select Team Project.
In project name below enter: Digital Catalog and click on Save

Step Two: Create tasks

In the next step Ann creates tasks for her digital catalog project.

• Select best template for new catalog.
  
• Make list of new products to add, remove and modify.
• Contact technical team to get 3D drawings and specs.
• Prepare excel spreadsheet with pricing.

To do this, still in Team Kanban, click on the Open button of your newly created project card Digital catalog.

This will bring you inside the new Digital Catalog project where you can start adding tasks to it:

Click on the + Task button and add the first task

Do the same for the 3 other tasks:

Once the tasks are created, Ann can choose what tasks she will focus on next. She drags and drops these tasks she into Soon/Now.

This last step is very important.
It tells Sam to schedule these tasks. The other two tasks are still in the project and ready to be activated when Ann will be ready to work on them.

Based on this intent you have shown using the board, Sam will schedule the tasks. Soon, they will appear on Ann’s dashboard with other tasks from other projects she is working on.

Adding Users
You can use Sam alone and it works great. That being said, Sam is really designed for teamwork.
If you need to add users it is very easy.
Get to the Setup menu, top right on the toolbar. Then select Team Members in the left drawer menu.

Click on + New to create a new user in your team.
You will need to specify your current PIN, to confirm you are allowed to do this. This is the same PIN you used to login.
You will also need to type once or twice the email address of the new user. You will also need to assign a PIN to them.
That is it. The new user can login with this information at our usual address.

To be fully active, a new user must successfully login in the system at least once. But you can assign them task already.

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This concludes this quick tour. Thank you for trying Sam!

Sam is very intuitive. If you have questions, use the support function in the help (?) menu.
The best way to learn Sam is to try things out, push buttons and see what happens. Follow our quick start guides to see some typical operations you will need.

Here are some more articles to get you going further...
Maybe it is also useful to read an overview of SAM9000.


Quick start - How to install Sam as a PWA web app on Windows, Mac, Linux or iPhone or Android phone?
It is possible to use Sam in its own window, with its own shortcut. This makes it super easy to keep it opened while you are working in other windows. No need to keep a tab in your web browser. Sam gets its own window. On smartphones, it acts exactly like any other apps, except you do not need the mac store or google play store. This is the same next gen system used by the Spotify, Twitter light and other apps.

If you have ANY question, Sam is always ready to help. Send an email to support@sam9000.com or use the support request form on this site.